A Night for Neville
by Lemonlas
Summary: An untold story from the life of Neville Longbottom


A Night for Neville

Neville Longbottom awoke abruptly, desperately needing to relieve himself. He glanced quickly out the window of Gryffindor Tower. The moon was high in the sky and by his guess it was about midnight. All was silent around him, save the snores of his classmates. He forced himself to get up and set about trying to find his dressing gown which had somehow ended up on the other side of the dormitory. He was not looking forward to traversing the sprawling castle at night as he had trouble finding his way around the castle at the best of times.

However he had no choice and grimly tiptoed past Harry who was quite unusually fast asleep and continued down the narrow stairs into the common room. He was midway through the room when a small shape sprinted in front of him, nearly landing him flat on his backside. He saw the squashed face of Hermione's cat regarding him from atop one of the lounges. "Watch out you stupid thing, you nearly made me wet my trousers!" he whispered furiously as he tried to regain his composure. He couldn't remember what the cats name was. Neville had never been good with names, in fact he had never been good at anything memory related unless it was to do with herbology. With this still on his mind he quietly whispered the password to the Fat Lady and exited the common room.

He was now in the gigantic hall of moving staircases which quite frankly had always unnerved Neville. He never knew when they were going to change direction and his fear of heights didn't help either. It was on the third staircase down that he sank into thin air and fell over. His foot was stuck in the invisible step. Harry and Ron continuously reminded him about this particular stair however he always seemed to forget it. His foot had a habit of always finding the invisible trap and unfortunately there was no one around to help lift him out this time. After much wriggling and squirming he eventually escaped and continued down to the first floor of the school.

The stair debacle had taken a good ten minutes and Neville was now even more desperate to find the boy's bathroom. He knew it was on this floor however he was not sure exactly where it was in the dark. He was considering which way to turn when he heard two voices coming from the right hand corridor. He looked around frantically and jumped behind the nearest tapestry which was adorned with spider webs. The hidden alcove behind it was similarly covered but Neville didn't mind, anything was better than being caught by Filch at this time of night. Sure enough as the figures rounded the corner Neville recognised the voice of the caretaker. "Castle seems to be secure at the moment professor" rasped Filch. To Neville's horror the second voice he recognised was none other than professor Snape who had had very little time for Neville over the past three years. That was putting it nicely, the man had hated him almost as much as he hated Harry and always made sure to humiliate Neville at every chance.

He saw a light appear through the tapestry as Snape murmured 'Lumos.' "You can never be too sure as far as Black is concerned Filch as I am sure you know. I for one will stop at nothing to get my hands on him should he set foot in this castle." The voices continued for a few more seconds before the men disappeared, then as quickly as possible Neville darted out of the alcove and sprinted off down another corridor. He was foolishly checking behind him while running when SMASH! He ran headlong into a suit of armour. Cursing he got up as quickly as possible despite the throbbing from his left arm and legs and hobbled into a nearby classroom which had mercifully been left open.

Neville had escaped the scene just in time as he heard the angry voices of Filch and Snape outside the door. "Peeves!" He heard Filch scream, the man was infuriated and for good reason. Peeves had been a constant thorn in Filch's side for years. However Snape was not so easily convinced that the poltergeist had been the one responsible this time. "This has Potter written all over it. Who else would have the arrogance to be out of bed at this time of night, with a known murderer on the loose?" Filch knelt down to pat Mrs Norris. "Whatever you think professor, but if this was Peeves you can be assured I'll have Dumbledore throw him out for good this time."

As the sound of footsteps gradually receded Neville looked down at his pants in dismay. He had not made it in time to the bathroom and his trousers were now soaking wet. Despite this he remained kneeling behind the teacher's desk for a good half an hour just to make sure Snape and Filch were well and truly gone. During this time he angrily berated himself. Why had he tried so hard to avoid the two men, he was not like Harry who was usually up to mischief. He had a legitimate reason to be out of bed yet he had crept around the castle like a mouse. He felt ashamed as fear had driven all logic from his mind. However it was too late now, he reflected as he stood up, his legs aching. However he also considered that it was Severus Snape he was dealing with, a man who hated him and Gryffindor. He most likely would have procured some rule that he had supposedly broken out of thin air so it may have been for the best that he had avoided detection. As he shut the classroom door on his way out he resolved to ask McGonagall about permissions in the morning.

Neville's situation may have seemed quite comical to some, such as Fred and George. However humour was the last thing on Neville's mind as he contemplated having to make his way back to the common room undetected with pants that were clearly wet. He was no stranger to embarrassing incidents. Just last year he had feinted during a herbology lesson then been hung by his ears from a ceiling display in Lochart's class. Many such as Malfoy had ridiculed him to no end but he had at least received sympathy from Gryffindors such as Hermione and Ginny. He dreaded to think what his gran would say about the predicament he was in, but quickly pushed the thought out of his mind. He needed to be alert so that he could remember the way he had come.

He made it all the way to the foot of the first staircase without incident until he heard a loud voice to his right, "You, stop there! Stand and fight you knave! To arms!" It was the portrait of that mad knight, Sir Cadogan who Ron had been complaining about in the great hall a few days ago. Neville ignored him and continued walking, albeit a little faster up the stairs. His put his right hand into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment. He had forgotten about this, it had the passwords for the week scribbled on it as they were being changed daily in light of Sirius Black. Neville of course had trouble remembering them and he couldn't rely on a Gryffindor always being around to give it to him. However rather than leaving it in his pocket to soak he placed it on the floor near the common room entrance, planning to retrieve it in the morning.

More importantly though he needed his hands free to cover his pants to avoid the potential for awkward questions. However as you would expect the common room was deserted at this time of night. Neville let out an audible sigh of relief as he climbed back up to the dormitory. He was safe. The next day he did not once stop to remember a certain piece of parchment he had left outside the room. It had been a terrible night for Neville Longbottom and one that he was all too happy to forget. However his forgetfulness was to hold dire consequences later that year.


End file.
